Elected officials in Butler County are set to receive a 1 percent pay increase beginning in 2014. Commissioner Bill McCarrier, board chairman, said at the meeting today that the new cost-of-living allowance for elected officials would be based on a 1 percent flat rate instead of the current Pittsburgh Consumer Price Index, which amounted to 3.5 percent this year. The change, if officially approved Thursday, would only affect row officers running in this year’s election for 2014. Those seven posts, which include sheriff and county controller, were paid under a prior COLA setting a 4 percent increase. Another seven posts, including the commissioners, were paid this year under the current COLA, which follows the CPI. Not only does the 1 percent increase take effect for those officials in 2016, but the higher increases received until then would be taken away. McCarrier said those salaries would be reduced in 2016 to the point they would have been if only receiving 1 percent from 2014 onward. The three commissioners proposed the change. The county COLA does not impact the salary of the district attorney, whose salary is set by the state even though the county pays it. County judges are state employees.